ANU takes immediate steps to remedy missed staff payments

The Australian National University (ANU) has taken immediate and comprehensive action to remediate missed payments to casual staff caused by an error in timesheet processing, unreservedly apologising to all those affected.

ANU has self-reported the missed payments to the Fair Work Ombudsman and has undertaken an extensive investigation of the issue spanning 11 years.

The University’s investigation identified 2,290 former and current casual employees impacted by the error, with an estimated value of $2 million in missed payments.

The median missed payment per impacted staff member is $600. 

ANU will pay all affected staff any missed payments they are owed, including superannuation entitlements, plus interest.

The University has already paid $261,000 to some 220 staff for missed payments in the 2023/2024 financial year.

The missed payments were caused by unactioned timesheets submitted by casual staff that weren’t brought to the attention of the University. The error was due to a system configuration.

ANU has taken immediate steps to rectify the system error that caused the missed payments and ensure the error is avoided in future.
 
ANU Vice-Chancellor Genevieve Bell said the University was “deeply sorry” for the error.

“ANU apologises to all staff affected by this error and any hardship, challenges and stress this may have caused,” Distinguished Professor Bell said.   

“We value all our staff and the vital contribution they make to our operations as a world-class university and are deeply sorry that some staff have been impacted by this error.  

“ANU is taking immediate and comprehensive action to remedy this situation and to ensure it does not happen again.

“The University has voluntarily notified the Fair Work Ombudsman of the error, as well as the corrective steps taken by the University to avoid a similar error in future.

“ANU has also notified staff that our investigations have identified as being impacted by this error and is working to remediate all missed payments as soon as possible.

“While this error has occurred in the past, we are confident that we have taken the necessary corrective measures to ensure this doesn’t happen again. “ANU is committed to recognising and compensating all staff for their hard work and vital contribution to our University and its operations.”

Emergency and on-call allowances

During the University’s investigation into the timesheet error, ANU also identified a secondary payment issue potentially affecting up to 120 staff undertaking emergency and on-call duties.  

The University is investigating this issue and will pay any outstanding allowances.  

ANU has engaged KPMG to assist with the investigation and to ensure remediation of any outstanding allowances occurs as quickly as possible.